


and you weren't lying when you said it would sting

by artemidos



Category: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, No vampires, Paranormal Investigators, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-28
Updated: 2016-11-28
Packaged: 2018-09-02 22:42:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8686165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artemidos/pseuds/artemidos
Summary: when kate needs a job, she doesn't expect the words 'paranormal investigator' to show up in her newspaper. what starts as a call to the number on the page on a whim becomes a fully fledged job for a man who may not be exactly what he seems.





	

**Author's Note:**

> wowwwww hi i'm finally starting a new multi-chapter thing. i'm not sure how long this is gonna be, but sort of like the last one i'm mostly winging it. i've wanted to write something multichapter for richiekate for so long, but don't worry seth is likely to show up at some point. the rating is the way it is because i'm sure it'll suit it sooner or later.

It was four p.m. on a Monday, after almost missing her nine a.m. lecture that Kate became aware of the fact that she needed a job. Well, at least she needed a job according to the opinion of her roommate. It came in the form of a newspaper hitting her square in the nose and rousing her from her half-asleep state on the couch. “Huh?”

Groaning, she pulled the paper away from her warm skin, struggling to open her eyes. Her eyelids felt as heavy as they had when she’d laid down an hour or so earlier, a book still closed over her thumb. She’d been taking a lot of accidental naps recently, the result of a screwed up college sleep schedule. She had been staying up far too late to easily make it through morning classes without several cups of coffee and crashing out as soon as she got home, even if she wanted to get more work done.

In front of her stood Ximena with her hands on her hips. “Up and at ‘em, Fuller.”

“I already went to class today, I distinctly remember because I can still taste the double choc muffin I rewarded myself with.” Kate replied to her insistence lazily, having turned over onto her back. She let the book in her hand fall closed, clattering onto the ground.  

“Not about class. You only have like a few more weeks left and you don’t have a job lined up.”

She narrowed her eyes and sat up straighter so her shoulders were pressed against the armrest. Kate had enough money to go to school _and_ live off campus, it wasn't like she was struggling, although if she didn't have the charity of the many people who pitied _the poor girl from that Bethel mess_ , she wouldn't be quite so lucky. “I’m covering my share of the rent… I don’t understand.”

“You’re gonna be wasting away in here, I can already see it.”

“I’m finishing my first year of college, I don’t think that classifies as wasting away. I’m also _really_ busy, if you haven’t noticed.” She gestured to the book on the floor and turned around, trying to find the notes lying elsewhere. “Like really busy.”

“I’m not taking about right now, I thought you would already have something planned for your summer.” Ximena took a seat beside her and Kate pulled her knees up to her chest, the newspaper resting on them as she listened. The woman had a quality about her, almost motherly in the way she lectured, but it had never bothered her. “It’ll be good for you and Freddie agrees with me. You could use some experience.”

“And a job in _retail_ or something else boring is gonna prepare me for teaching?”

“Come on, you’re being negative. Not everything out there will be that braindead-people-could-do-it boring shit. Have a little faith.”

“Faith? Ximena, you threw a newspaper at my head. I don’t think I’m gonna find anything in here…” She flipped it open, catching the first wanted ad she found. “Unless I’m planning on giving hand-jobs in massage parlours, that is.”

The other woman snorted and took it from her, folding the page and then turning around to grab a pen off the shelves that sat above their couch. She used it to move along the page, circling as she went.

“Receptionist?”

Kate made a face. She moved on, humming as she did so.

“I’m guessing you’re not interested in washing people’s pets either?”

Another no. Kate released a heavy breath and pulled the newspaper from her. “Can we not do this now? I have some stuff to get done.”

“I know you, by not right now, you mean give me some time so I can make sure you forget about it.”

She couldn’t prove that wrong, although being called out threw her off for a split second. Taking the pen out of Ximena’s hand, she tried to sound as sincere as possible.

“I promise I won’t avoid it. I would just rather do this not right now. Like… Maybe Friday? Over vodka shots?”

Ximena narrowed her eyes. Underage drinking was a line they’d crossed before, but Kate knew she felt bad about it almost every time. She knew that Freddie expected her to practically act as guardian to her, although she wasn’t even ten years older than Kate. Their friendship had come naturally although he was the reason they had met. She had been looking for someone to move in for almost a month when Freddie had suggested her. The woman’s relationship with him was harder to define, blurring lines that Kate didn’t cross or even so much as understand herself. She knew that there had been a period of time that she’d lived in the Gonzalez house before Margaret, his wife, had given birth to their daughter Billie. She didn’t pry, it wasn’t her place.

“Alright, but I’m holding you to it.” A finger wagged towards her in warning before the woman got up, disappearing into the kitchen where Kate could no longer see her. She slumped back into the couch.

Peering at the newspaper once more, she screwed her mouth up in thought like she’d tasted something sour and got up. She hadn’t considered that a job would be a good idea, but she was a little sick of her current routine. She didn’t often feel much like herself as of late, perpetually tired and grumpy.

Maybe it would help to have something to keep her grounded through a summer of supposed freedom. Ximena and Freddie only wanted what was best for her, even if it sometimes felt like overstepping. There wasn’t anyone else to make that call anyway.

Picking up her things, she walked back over to her room and found her phone underneath piled up sheets on her bed. No new text from her brother, big shock there, but her finger still hovered over the screen, hoping.

Scott still lived close to Bethel with their Aunt Eloise and Uncle Andrew and was finally completing his final year of high school after the rocky transition into the lives they led after… Everything. He’d been hesitant to go back to his old school – the one she’d graduated from – and had eventually moved to the next one over, but that didn’t stop people from talking.

The news was everywhere for a while, a constant stream of it as things updated. It still felt that way sometimes, but it’d been almost three years now and this was the most normal she had felt in a long time. Scott had seemed like he’d taken it better than she had, but their relationship had never been the same afterwards. He had drifted and rebelled and Kate had just been… Kate. The most out there thing she’d done was moving away for college.

* * *

Freddie called almost on schedule as she exited her last class for the day on Thursday. Kate had to scramble to answer her phone, it almost smashed into the pavement but she managed to get it to her ear before the call dropped. She waved off the people she was walking with after her fourth and final class, turning in the opposite direction without feeling bad that she hadn’t said a proper goodbye.

They were all close up until the point in the day where they separated from each other, the type of friendships that managed to get small, awkward smiles as you saw them in passing. By the end of the semester, she wasn’t sure she’d remember their names.

The day was still bright and relatively warm out, enough to justify the tiny shorts on her hips. The campus was as beautiful as ever as summer started to creep in slowly. She had liked it in spring when everything bloomed bright even despite the hay fever that had come with it at first, but it wasn’t like she wasn’t looking forward to it warming up more. Kate just missed the ridiculous rain and preferred the gloomy days inside, although every day seemed gloomy when she was studying for finals.

Stressing didn’t look good on her, it pulled her brown hair back in dark braids and had her doubling up on her caffeine. It was planning study dates, regretting them as soon as she sat her ass down in a stiff chair in the library and her ass going numb within the hour. It was hell, put short, but it would end soon enough and she’d be free, at least for a little while.

“Hey!” She greeted into the phone, sounding chipper. The phone screen was cool against her skin since she hadn’t been using it.

“Hey, Kate. How’s your Thursday?” He asked.

Kate could imagine him at his desk in the middle of the station, hear the people buzzing around him. She still knew the place well, having spent a lot of time there.

“It’s a Thursday.” It was almost sing-song in the way she delivered it, pushing her bag further up her shoulder.

“Classes all done?”

Freddie liked to pretend that he didn’t have her schedule written out somewhere in one of his notebooks, well memorised by this point in the semester. It didn’t bother her to play along, in fact it was nice to feel like someone cared, but it still had her expressing vague annoyance through her expression. Her lips pursed and she peered elsewhere, sighing quietly.

“Kept both eyes open through them all.”

“Yeah?”

“I mean the left one was a bit stubborn towards the end but I managed it.”

“Ximena told you about the...” He started, she interrupted.

“Yeah, she told me. I think it’s a good idea, I’m just not sure there’s gonna be anything interesting on such short notice.”

“You won’t know until you check.”

Kate’s shoulders deflated and she stopped her walk, changing the subject as she realised she was taking the route to the car park instead of the café on campus. She’d usually be driving home but after skipping lunch it seemed best not to drive on an empty stomach. “Right. How’s Billie? And Maggie?”

“Good. Maggie’s actually thinking of going back to work a couple of days a week. I think she’s probably sick of being home all the time.”

“Oh, good for her.”

“I’d offer you some babysitting but I think both our mothers are vying for that.”

Kate smiled, pulling her backpack strap higher up on her shoulder. “I don’t blame them.”

Freddie’s daughter Billie was quite possibly one of the sweetest little girls she’d ever met. With her curly hair and big brown eyes, Kate had instantly taken a liking to her upon meeting her as a baby and the feeling was mutual. Even now that she was living away from them, the few times a year that she got to see her in person were usually some of her best days.

“Anyway, I was just checking in.” He was beginning to wrap it up and Kate was thankful, as she could see the café she was heading towards was getting closer.

“I know, you do it every week.” She reminded.

“Just trying to stay consistent. Still coming for dinner Sunday after the semester ends?”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world… Uh, do you know how Scott’s doing? I haven’t heard from him.”

There was a pause. “He’s fine as far as I know.”

“Oh, okay. Well, I was just making sure.”

“He’s okay, you know.”

Stepping into the café, she began to look at the menu board for specials, unsure what she was hungry for, although she was craving something sweet to go with it. “I know. I have to go, gotta eat before I drive back to the apartment. Same time next week?”

“Goodbye, Kate.”

“Bye, Freddie.”

Hanging up, she tucked her phone into her pocket and walked up to buy herself something to eat, trying to focus despite the fact that she was becoming more and more tired as the vague jump in energy she’d gotten from class faded. It was suddenly hitting her too that if she planned on sticking around, she would have no friends to plan to hang out with, no boyfriend or girlfriend to focus on… It would likely end up being her, copious amounts of junk food and Netflix. Maybe Ximena was right, maybe she could use something to keep her going during the summer break.

* * *

There was so much screaming. Always so much screaming. It filled up her head and rattled around her brain, piercing any other train of thought, mowing it down like machine gun fire. There was no way to fight it out of her brain. It was all she could hear, all she could think. Screams that were so guttural, they no longer sounded real. Like when you recorded yourself and messed with all the options, otherworldly in the worst way, demonic.

Low and underneath everything, underneath the floor and wafting up from the cracks in the floorboards like smoke.

Above too, in the ceiling, sinking down on top of you until you couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t breathe.

She couldn’t breathe?

 _Fight through it. Push. Push_ _harder_. She pulled it off her in layers, like peeling away PVA glue from her skin, it would just stick to the pads of her fingers in lumps, strands like spider webs forming. _Keep going_. She fought it as hard as she could, clawing her way to the surface.

Kate opened her eyes to her childhood home. At her feet, some clear substance in clear sticky sheets moved around, crushed by her feet as she tried to move away from it. Looking up and at her surroundings, she realised where she was. The hallway upstairs, right outside her bedroom, beside the bathroom and close to Scott’s bedroom.

The room was plain, the same as it had always been, but the light above her blinked unnaturally. There was no rhythm to the way it blinked off – there a beat of clarity, then off, another beat, another, then off. The room lit up around it, but nothing changed, it was so still. She stayed in wait, the light blinking and suddenly becoming so bright that when it left she could see nothing at all.

Her feet moved without her because she knew it was time. She couldn’t stand there forever, that wasn’t how this worked. As soon as her foot planted back down on carpet, the screams started again, raw and terrifying. They didn’t overwhelm her this time, not physically, but they made Kate sick to her stomach. Swallowing it down, she kept moving to the top of the stairs, grasping for the railing as the light turned out completely, cracking and exploding behind her. She steeled herself to it, wind brushing the hair that hung down her back but nothing else.

With a tight grip producing white knuckles, her hand moved down to the railing with the rest of her as she descended the staircase. At the bottom there was a crack of yellow light from her parent’s room, an opening so small that she could see nothing but the small slit of colour in the dark.

Another few steps and the muffled screams became words she couldn’t understand. At first she thought it was just because she wasn’t sure, but recently she had been wondering it was because it wasn’t English. It didn’t sound like anything she’d ever heard.

On the third step she began to sink into the wood like quicksand and forced herself to focus, she needed to stop getting upset. She fought back tears and moved to the next step with a struggle, grunting as she ignored the screams starting up again. This time it was more like her mother, the pitch was higher. Then her father’s voice, loud and booming but again unfamiliar in terms of words.

The last few steps she rushed, hoping to make it in time to push the door open, but her arms wouldn’t move. It was like they were disconnected from her, like when you woke up after falling asleep on both of them and had to wait for the feeling to come back. It didn’t return, there was no tingling sensation in her shoulders working its way down, instead it was nothing, a dead feeling to match the dread that overcame her. Peering down, like clockwork she noticed that her feet were nailed to the floor, oozing blood around the rusted metal and Kate shut her eyes as tight as she could. It was just a dream. It was just a dream.

She didn’t wake up until the screams finally cut out for good.

* * *

The nightmares started about a week after her mother’s death. At first, she had assumed it was because her first sleep lasting more than a couple of hours that she’d had that whole week had been influenced by sleeping pills. Her brain conjured up some memory about reading it somewhere, that they could give you nightmares. It sounded normal enough as an explanation, too. Easy to keep the fear at bay when you were already scared enough in real life.

Kate only ever told a therapist about it, who had thought that it was her brain trying to conjure up memory for what she had missed, connecting the dots to make sense of something awful. She was supposed to be asleep the whole of that night, there were no memories for it to be connected to. Regardless, she’d still wondered if everyone was wrong. Besides for the parts that couldn’t have been real, it was so _vivid_. The screams… the familiarity of her home, it was all burned into her brain just like memory.

After that… it just didn’t stop. Not every night, but far too many to be normal, Kate had similar dreams. They were almost formulaic but they always happened in her childhood home and ended at the bottom of the staircase.  

She stopped going to the therapist and only told Freddie, who had quickly become a part of her life maybe because he pitied her. He worked her mother’s case and made sure she and Scott got through all of it as smoothly as possible. She was almost thankful that the nightmares were the worst part now, but they still got to her.  The screams, descending the staircase, the dread in her stomach, but she never managed to get past the door.

It didn’t seem likely that she ever would.

* * *

Friday was a blur and she promised herself that she would get actual studying done that weekend, as soon as she got her fun out of the way.

Finals were only a week away and she’d been slowly building up her confidence, but it took effort to get to that point. Her laziness paired with the prospect of a night hanging out with Ximena, even if she was supposed to be job searching sounded better and better as she made her way home.

Realistically they wouldn’t find anything in one night and especially not drunk, but it was an excuse to enjoy themselves a little for once. Ximena was busy a lot, her job as a bodyguard meant that her hours could be weird and she’d be gone sometimes for weeks. For once she had a Friday off and Kate would have taken advantage of that regardless.

It was a few hours till the door shut with her return to the apartment and Kate had already poured a little bit of vodka into her drink, twirling around the kitchen to an upbeat song. “I started without you!”

“I’m shocked.” Ximena called back, stepping into the kitchen with her hands on her hips. She was dressed like she usually was, tight black jeans, tight black shirt and hair curly across her shoulders. She was missing the leather jacket but it was probably just hanging by the door.

“Just a little bit in my soda, no big deal. Are we ordering dinner?”

“Sure. You want Thai or something?”

Kate nodded and Ximena got to ordering their usual dishes while she looked around in their cupboards for shot glasses that weren’t plastic pink and from the dollar store. Eventually she found some glass ones and placed them next to the ones she had bought. The newspaper also sat in the middle of their small dining room table, still open on the same page that she’d been avoiding.

The food came within half an hour and shut them up in the middle of a conversation where Ximena danced around the details of the client she’d been with for the week. She definitely wasn’t supposed to talk about it, but that didn’t mean she didn’t try to get details out of her.

After one and a half bowls of fried rice, Kate slumped over in her chair and reached for the bottle in the middle. “So how are we doing this, first we get super drunk and then we pick or we pick and then get drunk?”

The other woman replied between mouthfuls of Pad Thai. “I was thinking somewhere in the middle?”

“I’ll boot up my laptop too so this night isn’t completely wasted on a newspaper.”

Ximena rolled her eyes and Kate went to grab it off the coffee table, turning it on and placing it where her bowl had been. Eventually that too went aside when her roommate finished eating and they pushed their chairs closer together, beginning to scour the page of wanted ads more realistically than they had the first time. Kate was attempting to be less picky about her choices. If she needed to do something, it wouldn’t kill her to pick something more on the mundane side.

A job would probably be a distraction with a lot less deadlines to make and that she would appreciate. Kate went back to her laptop and began to search for stuff in the area, although not a lot of it looked all that promising. Still, she opened up a few to send in her resume to please everyone who was so set on this for her.

Just as she went to show her, Ximena was sighing in defeat, stopping at the bottom of the page and taking another shot.

“That bad?” Kate asked, eyebrows raised.

“I don’t know what I expected. What have you got?” She pursed her lips and turned her attention to the laptop.

“Have a look.” With the laptop slid over to her, Kate reached for the newspaper and unfolded it, scanning the page.

Surprisingly, something caught her eye and she wondered why Ximena hadn’t mentioned it. It was one of the plainest ads on the page, all block lettering, nothing special but that was unusual considering what it was for.

 ** _Richard Gecko, Paranormal Investigator_**. It sounded like a fake name. Who in the world seriously had Gecko for a last name and even then why _Gecko_? Why not something to go with the profession? Her eyes continued down to the next line. **_Seeking assistant_**. There was a number below that and not much else.

“What about this one?” She asked, nudging the woman beside her with her elbow.

As soon as she leaned over, Ximena laughed, shaking her head. “Oh, come on. No way that’s not some guy in his parent’s basement spending all his time looking at unsolved mysteries on Reddit.”

“Well, why don’t we call and find out?”

“Right now?”

“If he’s in his parent’s basement I doubt he has office hours.”

“Kate, we’re supposed to be looking for a real job, not someone who’ll try to pay you in his mom’s grilled cheese sandwiches.”

“Calling won’t hurt.” She insisted but Ximena still looked skeptical.

Kate ignored her and folded the page up, taking another shot before she pulled out her phone, slowly entering the numbers. Holding it to her ear, she only started to regret it two rings in. It was edging towards ten p.m. and he probably wouldn’t even answer, but she wasn’t exactly thinking clearly several shots in. She was a lot better at holding her liquor than she had been a year ago, but she still got drunk quicker than Ximena.

She was just about to end the call when a deep voice answered. “Who is this?”

Kate froze, her mind stuck on what to say. He sounded… Maybe tired, annoyed. “What kind of person answers the phone like that?”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“Um…” She breathed out awkwardly. “Sorry. I’m calling about the ad, in the paper?”

“Little late for job hunting, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know, is it?”

There was silence for a few seconds and Kate wondered if he’d hung up. Beside her, Ximena was frowning like she was crazy to have even called the number. Instead of leaning close and trying to listen, she just folded her arms and sat back in her chair. The man on the other end didn’t sound like some guy her age who didn’t know what he was doing, at least, but it was still a weird conversation.

“You’re interested in being my assistant.” He said it slowly, like he was confirming.

“Yes… Although, you didn’t really list hours or pay or anything like that.”

He was quiet for a moment and then spoke again after the ruffling of papers in the background. “Well, we’d sort that out after an interview.”

Her eyebrows raised and her voice perked up. “Oh. I have an interview?”

“Do you want one?”

This time Kate was the one who went quiet before she squeaked out an answer. Was this how it was supposed to work? She wasn’t exactly sure.  

“Yes?”

“You sound confident.”

She said it again, this time more _confident_ , after rolling her eyes. “Yes. I want an interview.”

“I’ll send you an address. Are you free tomorrow?”

“Yes.” It wasn’t a lie, she was supposed to be studying but she could spare a few hours for a job interview.

“Name?”

“What?”

“What’s your name?”

 _Oh_. “Kate.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Kate.”

Her name sounded nice in his voice, she thought and then instantly regretted it. At least she hadn’t said it out loud, although the thought had made for a dumb response in the form of a goodbye. “Okay.”

The line went dead but she continued to hold the phone there for a few seconds, realising what she’d done.

“I have an interview with Richard Gecko, paranormal investigator, tomorrow.” She said, placing her phone on the table, a little confused about it herself. Her eyes again looked to the newspaper to confirm that the whole experience wasn’t some hallucination.

“I think that’s our cue to stop drinking.” Ximena decided, screwing the lid back on the bottle of vodka.

* * *

Kate’s black lace up ankle boot tapped impatiently against the wood floor as she waited for Richard to come back into the room. The office she’d settled in was small but flooded with light from the bay window beside her and covered in what she assumed was his work. On the wall across from the window were two bookshelves taking up the whole space, covered in not only books but accordion folders, video tapes and DVDs with labels she couldn’t understand. His desk was more muddled, covered in folders, his laptop and a tablet.

Their interview hadn’t started yet, and she was still surprised that she’d left the house with the way her head pounded that morning. She was now still reeling from the fact that he wasn’t a forty year old balding man holding an EMP detector and a night vision camera. And he definitely wasn’t living in someone’s basement. In fact, he was astoundingly attractive, like a model with his broad shoulders, pretty face and the fact that he towered over her. His stature and outfit matched some idea of what a paranormal investigator was would look like in a movie, with horn-rimmed glasses, his dark hair slicked back and a suit like a bible salesman. It had been quite the shock, but she hadn’t mentioned it to Ximena, only texting her to let her know she was safe.

She had been paranoid before she left, suggesting things like background checks, but Kate had done a quick google search and found a website that looked official enough. At the very least, Richard Gecko believed he was the real deal. If she had time for more digging, she would have done it but the address he’d sent her was at least a half an hour drive and she barely knew her way around her own town, let alone the rest of Oregon.  

By one p.m. Kate was in the car humming along to whatever came on the radio, trying to follow the directions the GPS that Freddie had bought her for Christmas. After forty-five minutes and after missing a turn, she finally drove past a sign welcoming her to Laurel Orchard, a small town which seemed like it had more trees than people.

The house was far from neighbours and white with a dark grey roof. The property was enclosed in a flimsy looking fence, the garden surrounding it was nicely kept with the odd flower pot. Richard had welcomed her in and she’d been too dumbstruck to say much at all. He’d pointed to the office in between staring at her in a way that made her think something was on her face and then stalked off with his phone pressed to his ear.

By the time he came back, she felt a little better and her foot went still as she crossed her ankles below the chair.

“Sorry about that.” He said as he walked in, approaching the desk and tidying it up marginally before he sat down and shuffled the things on his desk around. He really was far too attractive to be in a profession that she wasn’t entirely sure should exist.

“It’s fine.” Kate replied politely, sitting up a little taller as his gaze fell to her again.

“You’re nineteen?”

She nodded and he stared down at her resume with what looked like amusement, scanning the page again. It made her feel antsy in her chair.

“I’ll be twenty at the end of the summer.”

“You look younger.”

“How old are _you_?” She countered, eyes narrowing for only a second to give away her annoyance.

“I’m twenty-eight.”

“You look older.”

It wasn’t appropriate interview talk, but once she started it was hard to shut herself up. Richard continued on anyway, thankfully just amused by her teasing. “So, Kate, I’ll take it you’re into the supernatural? Had some dodgy ‘psychic’ tell you about a family member from beyond the grave or something?”

“No, I’ve never met a psychic and I… I wouldn’t say that I have a particular interest in anything like that. I’ve never seen a ghost or anything. Your ad just seemed interesting to me, I guess.”

Kate couldn’t bring herself to act like it was something she cared all that much about. Getting this job wasn’t all that important to her and for some reason she didn’t want to lie to him. Richard narrowed his eyes in response to her words, like he was analysing her with his piercing gaze underneath his glasses.

“Interesting enough to call the number on the page.”

“I didn’t really take it seriously, but I also didn’t necessarily think it would pan out like this either.”

“You thought I would be different.”

“You don’t exactly look like the ghost hunters on TV.”

His expression changed, his eyes darkening and eyebrows furrowing. “You think I hunt ghosts?”

“I’m not sure _what_ you do.”

Richard stood up and began to walk over to his bookshelf as he explained, shifting his fingers through DVD cases as if he were looking for something.

“I don’t look for the supernatural. People bring me their bullshit and I prove them wrong.” It was Kate’s turn to frown as he turned to her again. “There’s a scientific explanation for everything. You can’t always prove something concrete but you can give an alternate solution that doesn’t rely on something that doesn’t exist and that’s what I do.”

“Right. You’re a paranormal investigator who doesn’t believe in the paranormal?”

“I investigate things when people pay me to only when I decide to take on their case properly, I’m not a scam artist and I don't do it for charity. I have my own purpose.”

Instantly she was wondering about what exactly that meant, but she didn’t question it aloud. Instead, she moved on to her next question. “Why do you need an assistant, anyway?”

“I’ve been doing this for five years or so, give or take, but I settled here two years ago to get out of Kansas. I decided to only take on the hard cases, but they’re hard to sort from each other. I get sent a lot of things that some simple googling can solve, but the stuff that takes actual research is what I enjoy.”

“And what would you consider a hard case?”

“The cases that are harder to put together, the gritty, fucked up stuff or… The ones that never quite fit the mould you put them in, that take time. I’m good at what I do. I’m good at seeing what others don’t… That is, for the most part, disconnecting the threads we put together in our heads to make sense of things, but I’ve realised lately it might be easier with a helping hand, so I put an ad in a few papers.”

“Do you find an explanation for every case you take on?”

Richard smiled and she tied not to do the same in return but it was almost infectious, the way the side of his mouth curved up and the rest followed. He took one of the DVD cases off the shelf and sat back down at his desk.

“That would be pretty impressive, wouldn’t it? Not every case… Some take longer than others.”

“You really think there’s nothing out there we can’t explain?”

“Yes. Do you?”

Kate shrugged. It felt like a personal question and she was stuck between wanting to be honest and not wanting to be made fun of. She’d let go of her conviction when it came to her faith shortly after her mother’s demise, but it still sat there in her heart, sunk in so deep that it would take too long to pull out. “I think… I don’t believe in ghosts or demons or anything like that, but I also think that we can’t explain everything so easily.”

“That’s the point. It’s not easy, but it’s doable.”

Kate admired that he was so steadfast in his own beliefs, enough to seemingly make a career out of it. It made him interesting, something to figure out.

“What would I be doing, if I worked for you?”

“Mostly helping with research, filing things, helping me conduct interviews, a range of things but not anything that would require too much from you. It would be an opportunity to help me help other people and you seem like a nice girl.”

Kate couldn’t help it, the question left her mouth without a thought. “How would you know?”

For a moment he was stumped, grinning in confusion. “You could give me a chance to find out.”

She didn’t want to feel flustered, but it felt like a flirtatious thing to say to someone you were interviewing for a job, not that she’d been interviewed since she was fifteen and sat in the back of Big Kahuna Burger with sweaty palms. She’d quit that job.

Ignoring her warm cheeks, she continued. “I have finals next week, so I’ll be busy and I’m flying back to Texas for the weekend.”

“You can start the week after if it works for you. Most of the time you’ll only need to be here a few hours every few days.”

“And pay?”

Richard stood up again, and so did she, feeling the finalisation of the interview before any actual decisions had been made. He guided her to the doorway with a hand hovering against her back and she glanced at him as he continued. “It’d be by the hour work but we can negotiate it. It’d only be me and you here most of the time, clients come and go but no one else lives here and no one else works here.”

Kate nodded slowly and reached into her bag as she stared up at him, unable to break her gaze. “You’re really just going to give me this job?”

He ignored her question as they paused half way through the door. “Yes. I like you, and I’ve interviewed a handful of other people who tried to tell me they’d been probed by aliens, so really it’s not like I have a shitload of options. You’re probably too young and I don’t know how good your work ethic is, but you’re my best bet.”

It was strange, to have someone be so to the point. It prompted a small smile but she felt awkward too and wished she wasn’t so much smaller than him. “Thanks?”

“Here.” He handed her the DVD she hadn’t realised he was holding and she took it, staring down at the label. ‘ ** _CASE EXAMPLE ONE. INSTRUCTION FOR ASSISTANT_**.’, it read and she wondered if he’d been looking for a while or if he was always this over prepared. “Watch it before you come.”

With that she walked towards the front door and he didn’t say much else, just studied her. It wasn’t until she was in the car, driving past the ‘Leaving Laurel Orchard’ sign that she realised how strange the whole interaction had been. He was rigid half the time and the other half smirking in a way that was kind of frustrating and now he was her boss? She was sure this wasn’t what Freddie was expecting but she knew that she’d be back. It was too interesting an offer to pass up. Besides, if he was that bad it wasn’t like she couldn’t just quit.

* * *

Ximena wasn’t so convinced, but Kate was too busy to argue with her, she had studying to get through and a big week ahead of her. For the most part, she buried herself in studying for the weekend, her hair up in a messy bun as she avoided anything but her books and the countless numbers of granola bars she went through. Then she switched to the junk food much to her roommate’s dismay, although she spent most of her time out and leaving Kate alone anyway. Half way through a packet of chocolate chips she decided to take a look at the video Richard had given her in the form of a study break and her speakers had boomed with crackling noises as security footage showed up on screen. It looked like it was out of some found footage horror movie, the way the angles were too perfect and she watched the room silently, picking up the bag of chocolate chips to munch on as she waited for something to happen.

Eventually, someone popped on screen and she jumped, sending chocolate chips all over her bed. Groaning at her own reaction, she peered up while trying to clean up as the screen changed the familiar desk with Richard on the other side, suit and all.

“I’m assuming you’re wondering what you just saw. As my assistant, you’ll have to get used to things like that, sometimes far more unnerving or graphic.” He began to explain what the video was and she giggled, wondering if he’d taken an afternoon off just to film this for whoever decided to be his assistant.

Pausing it as he got to analysing the video he’d started with, she shook her head and decided to go back to it later. God, he was strange. Interesting too, though. Definitely interesting.

* * *

Finals came and went and Kate wasn’t all that confident about them until she was done. She would have burned her notes but she didn’t think it would be cathartic enough. Instead, she focused her trip to visit Freddie and her brother – as much as he’d been reluctant to text back and confirm that he too was coming over for the dinner.

When she was there, it no longer felt something closer to home. It felt foreign to her, especially the heat and she wondered how her attitude could have shifted after only a year. Scott showed up to dinner, albeit fifteen minutes late but he’d seemed in a good mood. Kate only got to talk with him briefly about school and his life before her aunt and uncle picked him up and she’d waved him off from the porch. She’d swayed a little in her peach coloured dress as the sun started to go down and stepped back inside the house to discuss her job with Freddie, who was sipping a beer.

“You sure you don’t want me to do a background check or something?” He asked, glancing over at his daughter who was currently trying and failing to open all of the cupboards in the kitchen.

Kate smiled knowingly. “No, but I’m sure you or Ximena will do it anyway.”

“We’re just looking out for you, kid.”

“I know and I appreciate it, but I’ll be fine. It’ll probably just be a lot of me organising paperwork and stuff.”

“Alright, well you let me know how it goes.”

“I will.” She said, turning as Billie approached and leaned her chin against her leg. “Hey, bub.”

While nuzzling her cheeks and giggling after picking the little girl up, she felt a little more calm for the first time since finals had ended. It was hard to remember that she didn’t need to be stressed anymore. She had been before school had even gotten more intense. In fact, she was pretty sure she’d been stressed for years at this point.

* * *

Again, the hallway, the stairs. Again the screams. Kate’s eyes welled up with overwhelming tears that she couldn’t push down for some reason. They flooded her red cheeks as she began to step forward, to descend the stairs but the light behind her never smashed. It just got brighter and then there was a voice.

Deep, careful, slow, cutting into the screams and her sobs like it was only in her head and not right there behind her. Her breaths were quick and overwhelmed, the tears no longer sliding down her face. She wiped them away.

There was never anyone behind her. Who would be behind her?

“ _Apophenia_.”

Suddenly, she was able to stand still instead of being forced down the steps by her own body, pushed by something that may or may not be memory. She didn’t have to go down. She didn’t have to stand by the door and wait for it all to end once more. So she turned around, rather hesitantly. No feet nailed to the floor, no foreign languages, just an eerie quiet inside her mind. She knew it was him, even before she saw the suit and glasses. It had become familiar all too quickly.

“What are you doing here?” She asked, but it came out too casually. She was trying to make an accusation.

Richard was staring at her and then his lips turned up into a frustratingly attractive smirk. “It’s just a dream, Kate.”

She woke up faster than she expected to, knocking into the side of the couch before her eyes adjusted and she realised she was still in Freddie’s living room. It was quiet out, considering he lived in the middle of suburbia. A clock ticked in the kitchen and she could see a light on in the hallway that made it easier to see the rest of the room. Her blankets were half on the ground and she sat up to rearrange the makeshift bed and check the time. She hadn’t had a dream like that before. Not just the fact that he was there, but the fact that there was someone else in the first place.

It was still a few hours until she had to be up to go to the airport, but she kept seeing his face and hearing his voice. The word he’d said, she didn’t think she’d heard of it before. It was too late to justify looking it up and her eyes had already become droopy, so she fell back into the pillow and rolled over onto her sound.

Into the dark, she whispered the word. “ _Apophenia_.”

She fell asleep after five minutes, the word repeating in her head over and over.


End file.
